New Zealand in England May - June 2013

[cerande]

Not in the spirit of the game to knock the ball those few extra metres for a boundary? Different story if you simply don't chase and let it roll over on it's own?

You know this has been done before.During 2nd Ind vs SA test(2010) when the Indians wanted Morne Morkel on strike instead of Amla,Sehwag kicked the ball to the boundary.

It was decided to give 1 run for the shot and 5 runs were added as a penalty.

 

[War]

Yeah, the main point on Guptill vs Fulton is Fulton learnt from his mistakes. Even when he was struggling he still scored runs, he fights very well and is obviously a bit stronger mentally than Gup atm. I do think Gup has the goods for the middle order, much like McCullum has prospered since moving there - he's just no good against the new red ball. Think of Astle, opened in short form and was middle order in tests.

Ah yea i can see what you mean in the Guptil/Astle comparison.

 

[Epic]

actually was thinking recently that Prior was slipping off his perch as one of the best wicket keeper bats and that quite a few other wicketkeepers were beginning to edge ahead of him (though Ab is still the best currently) but that's put him right back up there.

Really... care to explain?

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

just he hadn't made a big score in a while and I really wasn't noticing him doing anything of note recently. dhoni had just thrashed a match winning 200 against australia, de villiers was man of the series against pakistan, and I felt prior wasn't doing anything that marked him out as particularly special right now.

 

[Haarithan]

Measure their consistency levels and Prior would sit atop, well clear of the other two you'd mentioned. Dhoni hasn't scored a test hundred outside the sub-continent, and de Villiers I believe had his first impressive series as a WKB. Prior has been saving England's skin with the bat for the best part of the last five years.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I'm not meaning in a big crazy war style debate where we pull out stats and compare their careers. I just hadn't seen him score a particularly impressive knock in a good year or more. I had seen others do that and if I was selecting a world XI before this test wouldn't have picked him on form.

 

[ste_mc_efc]

I think i'd take De villiers over prior, just.

But then i'm not sure if he would do prior's role as well as prior does

 

[Epic]

Measure their consistency levels and Prior would sit atop, well clear of the other two you'd mentioned. Dhoni hasn't scored a test hundred outside the sub-continent, and de Villiers I believe had his first impressive series as a WKB. Prior has been saving England's skin with the bat for the best part of the last five years.

You say that as though Prior has a few Test hundreds in the sub-cont.

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Ste brings up a good point though, Prior bats @ 7, while de Villiers bats @ 5...

 

[ste_mc_efc]

Ste brings up a good point though, Prior bats @ 7, while de Villiers bats @ 5...

No need to sound so surprised.

 

[puddleduck]

Pretty sure its the final sign the apocalypse is coming

Think it shows how good Prior is now that people don't seem to notice he consistently scores runs. Either quick runs when the team is well set or battling half centuries when he gets left with the tail. A very selfless player.

 

[War]

I'm not meaning in a big crazy war style debate where we pull out stats and compare their careers. I just hadn't seen him score a particularly impressive knock in a good year or more. I had seen others do that and if I was selecting a world XI before this test wouldn't have picked him on form.

Ha did you stop watching cricket for more than a year sir SB?.

Because in the last year specifically, Prior has countless amount of crucial 50+ innings for England at various match stages.

 

[ste_mc_efc]

Ha did you stop watching cricket for more than a year sir SB?.

Because in the last year specifically, Prior has countless amount of crucial 50+ innings for England at various match stages.

That's just it though, 50+ when everyone else fails always get overlooked because "it's not a daddy hundred" or some other such nonsense. Bell played pretty much just as well as prior on the last day, he won't get anywhere near the same praise.

 

[Epic]

Woah, 2 good points in 1 thread.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

well, er, yeah but I didn't say he was rubbish... at all. just that he was hardly way out in front like he was because recently other wicket-keepers had been scoring big hundreds.

 

[Epic]

Matt Prior's surely the 2nd greatest wicket-keeper/batsman ever behind Adam Gilchrist?

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Maybe that's a bit far fetched, and are the likes of Kumar Sangakkara and Andy Flower considered wicket-keepers? I mean they started out as keepers and after a while they stopped keeping... always confusing this.